A Thousand Words
by Rylitah
Summary: As he found and discovered each letter, he began to understand the story behind Captain Olimar. / Pikmin 3, Alph-centric. Some Brittany and Charlie. Spoilers for Pikmin 1. Oneshot.


"Hey, Brittany. Alph here. I think I found one of those fruit things you were talking about… Do we have enough room for it in the ship?"

"You _think_?" Her voice fizzled and cracked through the communicators built into their suits. Alph wished that they had been better equipped, but he couldn't complain with what they already had. "They're huge, Alph. You can't mistake them for anything else."

"Okay, sorry, I _definitely _found one. Do you want me to bring it back?"

There was a slight pause and Alph could hear the sound of shuffling before she responded, "… Yeah. Charlie and I aren't having much better luck, so if you don't want us to starve then I'd say bringing it back is a good idea."

"Alright, I'll leave it here then!" He joked and turned off the communicator before she could respond. Having been trapped together for almost two weeks now, he knew that she would understand when he was joking. … At least, he hoped so.

He whistled and pointed for the Pikmin under his command to swarm the Sunseed Berry ahead. The little creatures all chirped and jumped to follow his orders. The reds and yellows surrounded the base as the winged Pikmin flew up to the top, giving the ones on the bottom just a little extra support. The ones who hadn't made it to the fruit in time before all bases had been covered drooped a bit, but Alph whistled them to attention before they set off back in the direction of the ship.

_Fifteen days of this planet, and I'm already kind of sick of it_, Alph thought to himself, scanning the area for any creatures that could be lurking in the shadows. _At least the Pikmin are pretty cute._

As if they could read his thoughts, the whites nearest him looked up and tilted their heads in interest. The purples lagged behind some, but the rocks ran back to push them ahead.

_I wonder if we're the first people to ever find this planet_, the blue haired Koppaian continued, ignoring the Pikmin behind him. _No one back home has probably ever heard of it before, so I guess not. Would that make us discoverers? That'd be pretty cool, actually!_

He hummed to himself and turned to see how far along the Pikmin were in transporting the fruit. Without any enemies seeming to be hiding anywhere out of sight, there was practically a clear path back to the ship where they would be reunited with the other two leaders. _That's odd_, Alph thought, _I didn't take this path on the way here…_

The Pikmin started to slow their walking pace, and a few even seemed a bit nervous to go on. The blue haired captain noticed their sudden anxiety, and he blinked down at them. "Hey, what's wrong? The ship should be somewhere over here if we keep going straight…"

The little creatures shook their heads, the stems swaying with the movement. A couple even took a few steps back and looked almost ready to run for it in case their leader decided to press on. Alph frowned, and looked ahead to see what it was they seemed to be so afraid of. Nothing looked suspicious at first glance; no suspicious rustling bushes or any enemies in clear sight…

Quickly he dismissed the Pikmin, and they backed off with almost relieved looks on their faces. Alph decided that he was going to have to investigate alone. "Go back to the ship with the Sunseed Berry carriers; I'll catch up with you all before the day ends." They blinked as he spoke to them, but seemed to understand his words as they ran back to the ones transporting the large fruit.

As soon as they were out of sight, Alph pressed on alone.

The sun was still set high in the sky, so there was no need to rush or hurry his investigation. Alph had never particularly been one for mysteries, but the anxiety and nervousness of his Pikmin companions had been enough to spark his curiosity. What could they be so afraid of if there was nothing there?

He sighed and continued walking ahead. Maybe there was something he was missing? Some sort of invisible being that the Pikmin could sense, but he couldn't? _That's pretty stupid_, he thought, but kept himself on guard just in case. There was no such thing as being too careful, he had learned in the two weeks he had been on the planet. Especially not when there were many varieties of enemies that wouldn't think twice about eating him.

Eventually he came to a small field of grass and flowers. The sun seemed to shine directly on the area, and Alph had to constantly blink his eyes just to keep himself from going blind. He took another step forward, and a stray breeze started to blow. Absentmindedly, he watched the stalks of grass and the stems of flowers sway in the wind, putting him in an almost peaceful daze.

Then something smacked into his helmet.

"What the heck?" He stepped back and waved his arms in front of him rather crazily to ward off whatever was attacking him. Only when he realized that he was only hitting empty air did he stop and pause to actually see what had hit him.

A single flat sheet of paper, stuck to the smooth glass surface of his helmet. He blinked and gingerly peeled that sheet off, careful not to rip it. _There's some kind of writing on it; I don't really recognize who it… _His eyes widened in realization. _Wait! I can read this!_

He turned his head from left to right, looking for any suspicious enemies that could be ready to attack him, before he chose a comfortable spot to sit and read the writing to himself. He had all the time in the world.

* * *

… _My name is Captain Olimar._

* * *

_Captain Olimar, huh? Weird name, _Alph thought amusedly to himself before pressing on.

* * *

_I'm afraid I've landed myself in a rather… dire situation. My ship, the S.S. Dolphin, has been completely ruined. I've made the calculations, and I've deducted that I am missing __**thirty **__integral parts required to make her function._

_If that wasn't an undesirable situation in itself, I've realized that my life support systems will only function and keep me alive for __**thirty**__ days. Thirty ship parts in thirty days… even if I had the means to carry those parts back to the ship, how would I even be able to go about finding them all? My wife and my children back on Hocotate… they won't ever find me if I am to perish here. No one would ever know what became of me. And what then?_

… _I can not give up so easily. I will not allow myself. I have to at least try! And even if things don't turn out for the best… No. I can't think like that._

_I will get home!_

* * *

The note ended there.

Alph's heart rate started to pick up, and he looked around for any signs of life other than himself. If he could find this Olimar guy… he could help him get out! No matter how big those ship parts were, the Pikmin would be more than enough to carry those back to his ship. Olimar more than needed their help. _Looks like we aren't the only ones here after all_, he grinned to himself. As much as he loved Charlie and Brittany, even their constant presence for two weeks straight was starting to grate on his nerves.

But where would he even begin his search for Captain Olimar? Alph hadn't yet finished clearing out the entire area, and from what he could see every night after they had blasted off into the atmosphere, the planet was _huge._ It'd be a miracle to find someone new in a place so large and imposing…

_But wait_, he told himself. _If Olimar were so far away, then I wouldn't have found this paper. It would have been ripped or at least be in much worse condition if it came from somewhere that wasn't anywhere near here. He has to be somewhere close by._ He smiled. He could actually be a hero to someone!

Alph carefully folded the letter and placed it in his pocket. If he found Olimar, there would be more than enough room on the ship for him. _Hocotate, huh? Sounds pretty familiar… _He shook his head. He had to hurry if he wanted to save this man's life.

_The chances of him already encountering the Pikmin are pretty slim, I think_. When he had first crashed onto the planet, the Pikmin were dormant in the mechanical onions. He hadn't seen any sign of them before he found that specific onion, so he doubted that Olimar already knew of their existence. They would be out and about before Alph ever stepped foot onto the planet if that were the case.

Up ahead were a cluster of trees. It wasn't an area he was familiar with, but the note seemed to have been blown by the wind from that direction… he didn't have many other options. Quickly he checked the timer built into his spacesuit to gauge how much time he had left in the day. _A few hours,_ he read. _I hope that's enough._

Taking a deep breath, he ran headfirst into the forest. Almost instantly the scenery changed from a bright and sunny field of flowers to a rather damp grove with autumn-colored leaves littering the forest floor. They crunched as his boots stepped and made contact with them, and he silently cursed to himself as he noticed the various creatures up ahead.

With no Pikmin to protect him and to fight with, Alph knew he had to be more careful than ever. He maneuvered himself rather awkwardly as he tried to avoid the crunching noise of the leaves, and hid behind the trees whenever the hostile creatures looked his way. He had never been stealthier in his life. _Wait until I get back alive and brag to Brittany about this._

Alph didn't particularly think about how he didn't really know where he was going. All he knew was that there was _someone_ out there that possibly needed his help, and there was no way he would sit there and twiddle his thumbs with that kind of knowledge. Even if it would potentially get himself killed.

Luckily for him, he found a familiar sheet of paper just a few meters ahead, hiding behind a Wollywog. He bit his lip, thought himself a prayer, and made a run for it. The large and almost comical eyes rolled in his direction and the fat thing leaped itself off the ground to position itself over Alph's body. Alph picked up the speed and dived for the paper just before the Wollywog landed with a loud _thump_ on the ground, making a rather loud noise with all the leaves it crinkled.

Without pause, the blue haired captain snatched up the paper and rolled himself away to safety.

* * *

_There may be hope for me yet._

_I discovered something embedded in the ground… I wasn't entirely sure what it was, but when I got close to it, it suddenly came to life and ejected a seed-like object! A sprout emerged from where it planted itself in the soil, and while I debated to myself on whether or not I should pick it, the leaf from the stem eventually turned into a flower._

_I decided to pluck it._

_The creature… it's small, red, and has a rather pointy nose. It looks like one of the Pikpik carrots I love so much back on Hocotate… so for simplicity purposes, I shall call it a '__**Pikmin**__'. It follows me around, and listens whenever I blow on my whistle… there were these odd round things that it carried back to the object it came from (I've decided to call it an '__**Onion**__', since it resembles that from Hocotate as well), and more Pikmin came from it! I'll call that thing a __**pellet**__._

_These creatures, Pikmin… they follow me and obey my command. I'm not entirely sure why, but maybe… maybe I can use them to help carry my ship parts as I find them? Luckily, the __**engine **__to my beloved Dolphin was somewhere close by where I landed, perfectly intact. The Pikmin seemed to know exactly what to do as they carried it back to the ship, and just like that, I had one out of the thirty missing pieces. I am now capable of probing the atmosphere when the time comes. I don't have enough power or energy to make the flight back to Hocotate, but it's a start._

_Maybe… I have a chance at surviving now._

* * *

Alph slid down the base of the tree he had been leaning against as he reached the end of the note. So Olimar _did_ already know about the Pikmin…? _But that's impossible_, the Koppaian bit his lip. _We should have been the first ones to find them._

It was a complete coincidence that Olimar called the Pikmin the same as Alph, Brittany, and Charlie did. Their reasons for the names were rather similar, and it was a rather odd stroke of luck that they all happened upon the same thought process.

_So if he already knows about them, that means he already fixed his ship and left, right?_ Alph closed his eyes and kicked his legs out. So much for being such a hero… But Olimar seemed rather fond of documenting his writings in these little notes. Surely there must be more.

With that thought in mind (_There's nothing else left for me to do today, anyway)_, he picked himself off the forest floor and continued his search for the rest of Olimar's letters. Even if Olimar had already left the planet, obviously he had left behind some of his notes. As long as Alph get going, maybe he'd get concrete proof that Olimar was alright.

_And if I end up actually finding him, even better,_ he reasoned to himself. _More people is always good. And he seems to be all by himself… poor guy. _At least he had Brittany and Charlie, no matter how annoying they could get at times.

Part of him wondered if what he was doing was pointless. Well, of course it was. There was nothing he could gain by reading some lonely guy's notes about a foreign, hostile planet he was trapped on. Nothing would happen to him, and it wouldn't change his life or what he himself was doing on the planet unless he actually _did _run into the guy who wrote them.

But the other half of him wanted to finish what he had started. It was almost like reading a book, closing it before getting to the ending, and losing it later without remembering the title or anything about it. He would be wondering what became of that man, and if he ever made it back to his family.

Alph figured he was pretty sappy.

He didn't have the KopPad with him, so he absentmindedly turned the communications device inside of his suit back on. Almost instantly, Brittany's voice filled his helmet.

"What's going on? Alph! You turned off your—"

"I know, I know," Alph sighed. "Hey, Brittany—"

"Where are you? Your Pikmin all came back to the ship with the Sunseed Berry, but you weren't with them and I started to worry and Charlie told me not to worry and that you were probably off getting yourself killed or something and that didn't make me feel any better at all and—"

"Brittany," the blue haired Koppaian sighed, and the girl stopped her rant. "Sorry about that. Something came up, and I went to go check it out for myself."

"Where are you?" Brittany asked, worry filling her voice. "Charlie and I can come to get you."

"I don't really know," Alph admitted. "But I can probably find my way back easily. But Brittany, I want you and Charlie to keep an eye out for some guy, okay?"

"Some guy? What?"

"His name is Captain Olimar. He's apparently stuck on this planet, I found some of his notes, and I don't know if he's still here or not. He may not be, but just in case… I want to help him, okay?"

"… Alph," Brittany breathed after a pause. "We've been here for two weeks, in this same area. If he was still here, don't you think we would have ran into him by now?"

Alph thought over her words for a moment. "Maybe, maybe not. I didn't find any of his notes until about an hour ago. Just do this for me, please?"

"… Okay. But come back before it gets dark."

"Don't worry. See ya, Brit," he muttered before turning the communications device off once more. His entire plan was a bit shaky and not very well thought out, but there was no way he was going to leave an innocent guy here in the middle of a hostile world if he could help it.

_He wrote that he only had thirty days before his life support ran out_, he remembered. _How long has it been since he wrote the first note? The paper didn't look that old, maybe a week at best. There's still a chance… there has to be._

He stood up, and walked on.

**OoO**

It seemed like forever had passed since he found anything worth interest, but he was eventually rewarded with the third note to his quest. The third note was in a place with plenty of water, and Alph had been lucky enough to catch it just before it fell into a wet puddle and was lost forever. There were probably some notes he had missed, but as long as he reached the conclusion to his story he didn't care.

His legs were sore, and he was almost on the verge of collapsing from the amount of walking he had done. He couldn't remember a time where he had walked more in his life.

After evading the various Wogpoles and Water Dumples lazing about in the lakes, he took refuge in a large cracked open egg. Whatever had been inside was long gone by now.

* * *

_I think I'm making decent progress with the Pikmin._

_I've been stranded on this planet for about three weeks now, and I've found and acquired twenty five of my ship parts. I've realized that there are, in fact, some parts that __**I probably do not need and will be able to leave without them**_**. **_But… there are only five parts of the Dolphin left before she can be complete, and I still have nine days before I'm left to expire._

_I think I can do this._

_I've gotten more or less used and accustomed to life on this planet. I'm used to the Pikmin being my only companions, the primary colors they are. I'm used to fighting for my life to try and survive the attacks from the hostile creatures on the planet – if one day I am forced to come back, I shall be more prepared than I am now. The life forms here are rather fascinating – I could probably write a hundred reports on all of them! The scientists back on Hocotate would have a field day with this._

_But ah… I digress. I miss my family. My wife, and my children… they must miss me terribly. I was supposed to be home weeks ago, but they haven't heard a word from me since before the crash…_

_Don't worry! I _will _return!_

* * *

Alph felt hope well up in him. This Olimar guy was so optimistic despite being trapped on the planet for three weeks (Three weeks? That's longer than he and the other two have been there! Maybe Olimar really was already gone!), and he still had hopes for seeing his family again. He kept a lot of resolve, and Alph admired him for that.

_I'd like to meet him someday, _he thought to himself, pocketing the note. _I could give these notes back to him, too, and he could see for himself just how brave he sounded. I don't know if he even realizes that._

It struck him then that he never found out exactly why the Pikmin were so afraid of going into the field of flowers hours earlier. There was nothing of particular interest there except for the note that the wind had been blowing around. _I knew it was nothing, _he thought and groaned aloud. _Leave it to the Pikmin to send me on a hike without even a reason why._

Though he'd admit that it wasn't completely for naught. He found out about a guy from the planet Hocotate (why did that planet's name sound so familiar?) and read essentially his entire situation and its progress in just three simple notes. Of course, Brittany would probably argue with him that his time would have been better spent looking for more fruit to harvest the seeds from to help cultivate their planet with, but Alph figured he deserved the break.

He also found new areas they hadn't yet explored out of it, and so he would tell that to her before she got too angry. In the end, everyone would win. Alph got a break, Brittany got another place to explore, Olimar was alive, and Charlie… well, Alph never really knew what went on in Charlie's head, but he figured Charlie would get something out of it too. Somehow.

"I do so love happy endings," he smiled to himself as he carefully made his way out of the hatched egg. He tripped and broke a good piece of it off, and he watched as it fell and sunk below the surface of the water. To his surprise, the nearby Wollywogs and other various creatures either didn't notice or hear the splash, and simply left him alone. _What a lucky break._

Alph decided that now would probably be a better time than ever to make his way back to the spaceship. Already he could see the sun beginning to set in the sky, signaling that the end of the day would rush to meet him in just a couple short hours. Luckily for him, his memory wasn't _completely _awful and thus he was able to more or less remember the path he took to get to where he currently was. As long as he didn't goof around and get himself into trouble, he should have just enough time to make it back to Brittany and Charlie before dusk fell.

Carefully he made his way past the various creatures in the water, but even if they noticed him, they simply left him alone. It did strike him as particularly odd, but he decided not to dwell on it too much. _The creatures here are pretty passive_, he thought as he glanced at them from the corner of his eye. They didn't even follow him. Shrugging and thanking his good luck, he continued on his way.

It didn't take him very long to make it back to the woods where he had found the second note. He never went too far into the place with all the water, and both areas were pretty near and close to each other. Hopping over a bush, his ears twitched as the sound of crackling leaves reached them once again.

Avoiding the slumbering Bulborbs and the watchful Wollywogs, he tried to retrace his steps back to where he came from. He would make it back through the flowery field, back to where he found the Sunseed Berry, and then make it back to the ship with Brittany and Charlie before the sun set and he would be bug food. Nothing too complicated.

But up ahead in the distance, he saw something blowing in the wind that looked awfully familiar. _Another note?_ Without giving it a second thought, he forced his legs to move faster and he reached out for the piece of paper, snatching it straight out of the air before it could be blown away from the tips of his fingers. _Bingo! Let's see what happened next in the chronicles of Captain Olimar._

* * *

_I don't… I don't know where things went wrong._

_Maybe I got too confident in my skills. Maybe I started slacking off due to how much time I had left, and how sure I would be able to get these ship parts._

_I don't have much longer to live._

_The Pikmin… they're all gone now. Me and my foolish carelessness—I got them all killed. It was my fault, I couldn't protect them! And now… now, I guess I'm paying the price._

_I don't know where the Dolphin is. She's too far away for me to rely on her. The only thing I can do now…_

… _is wait for my own death._

* * *

Alph stood there, holding the fourth note in his hands. His eyes scanned over the words repeatedly, as if they would change the longer he stared at them.

… _That can't be right, _he thought to himself. _He was so close to leaving… what could have happened that messed things up so badly?_ His fingers gripped the piece of paper so tightly, it almost ripped. _Maybe… maybe there's another note here. Somewhere, anywhere. Maybe he's still here, with just a few days left. Maybe… maybe I can still do something…_

His legs ran despite how sore they were. Alph had been pushing them all day, and he feared he may collapse if he gave them even a moment longer to rest. He would collapse and never want to get up, and then…

_No, I'm not going to think that way! _He shook his head. _I have to be optimistic. I have to…_

In just a few minutes, he found himself back in the field of flowers. The sky was painted an orange-red color, with a mixture of yellows and pinks throughout. Alph turned his head from side to side, looking for anything that could lead him back on Olimar's trail. _I'm going through all this for some guy I don't even know_, he groaned internally. _Brittany and Charlie will never let me hear the end of it._

He ran deeper into the flower field than he had earlier. There were no enemies, no creatures hiding in the blades of grass waiting to lash out and attack him for being defenseless without any means to fight back. The entire area was serene and, dare he say, completely safe. It was almost unnerving.

His heart almost stopped still in his chest as he found the next note lying innocently just ahead on top of a small patch of violet flowers. He slowed his run to a walking pace and his fingers trembled as he plucked the sheet of paper gingerly from the petals of the flowers. Either it was a note he had missed completely on his first search there, or it was the conclusion to Olimar's story.

Alph prayed it was a happy ending.

* * *

… _I am exhausted._

_This is my last sheet of paper, so unfortunately I will be unable to further document my logs and observations of this planet. … Not that it really matters anymore, anyway._

_Who will ever read this?_

_There was a large beast with a long and thick tongue. I named it the Emperor Bulblax. It… decimated almost all of my Pikmin. A few managed to get away, but the creature has done irreparable damage to my life support systems. I managed to crawl and drag myself away from the scene of that 'battle' (however one-sided it was), and now I lay at the base of my beloved Dolphin, too tired and exhausted to even climb into the cockpit to attempt to leave._

_The Pikmin have all but abandoned me by now, it seems, and I suppose I'll have to face my end completely alone._

_To my wife, and my beloved children…_

… _I'm sorry._

_I won't be coming home._

* * *

As the note went on, the neat and precise handwriting became shakier and messier, as if Olimar couldn't control his hand as he continued to write.

_He was probably crying_, Alph thought.

He took a step back, and the paper slipped from between his fingers. It landed lightly on the flowers below. Alph couldn't bring himself to pick it back up and add it to his collection.

Something in his heart felt heavy. He wasn't necessarily feeling like he was going to cry, but… he felt guilty, somehow. There was nothing he could have done to help Olimar in his time of need, and he couldn't have possibly _known_ that Olimar was ever even there. But now he knew. And he felt terrible for it.

A man who's life centered almost solely around his family…

… and he wasn't even able to be with them in his last moments.

The Pikmin remembered him. Olimar probably died somewhere near there, and they remembered. They didn't want to be anywhere near the place their old leader had died. The final note was all that remained.

Alph let out a shaky breath, and he turned the communications device in his suit on once more.

"Alph?" Charlie's voice came through this time, and while it surprised the blue haired Koppaian, he couldn't bring himself to start up a decent conversation.

"Hey, Charlie. I want you to know that you and Brittany are the greatest friends I've ever had, and I couldn't imagine being stuck on this planet with anyone else. Tell this to Brittany too, okay?"

Charlie paused, unsure of what to say next. "... Uh, sure, Alph."

"I have another thing to ask, too. Do you know a planet called _Hocotate_?"

"Hocotate? I've heard it was the planet with the interplanetary delivery service that was supposed to deliver those Golden Pikpik carrots to us that never came. It's the entire reason our planet is dying right now."

Alph gulped. "... Ah. I get it now."

"Alph? Are you alright?"

"... Yeah. I think so. I just have a lot to think about and appreciate now."


End file.
